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Sacred Music Colloquium Keynote Address – August 15, 2015 Our Lady of the Mountains, Jaspar, GA Rev. J. David Carter, JCL Pastor and Rector of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Chattanooga, TN (2nd Kings 22: 3-4, 8-13,18-20; 23: 1,3)

King Josiah's story is one of inheriting a kingdom full of foreign elements and then discovering that there actually was a law that described what God wanted. With great zeal he went about implementing the Law and Israel was put on right footing again. Reading this story before a talk on the state of Sacred Music in the Church today might seem a little melodramatic – And it is. The regulations about how the sacred music of the church is to be carried out should not be equated directly with the words of the Book of the Law given to Moses in the desert. Nor should we, except perhaps in a little bit of exasperated jest, equate the utter disregard for ecclesial instruction that has lead to the current state of Sacred Music in the Church with disobedience to the – the former certainly doesn’t merit the punishments described as the latter would. But I would like to suggest that there is some resonance in this story with many people like myself who have had the experience of the rediscovery of the Church’s beautiful designs on Sacred Music, especially if what we grew up with was far from those designs.

Now this little anecdote from the Book of Kings didn't mean much to me personally until I had a similar experience with Sacred Music.

Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s was an interesting time for a young Catholic in your average American parish. Already, that ‘contemporary’ music that they talked about in the 70’s was old and worn – I remember getting the distinct feeling 2 that the sounds I was hearing were the musical equivalent to felt banners, burlap vestments and clay chalices. It was thought that this is the music young people listen to and so the thought continued that it was to be used in sacred liturgy to ‘attract’ the youth. However, even as a teenager of about 14 or 15 years old I recognized that even the best ‘contemporary’ music the Church could offer was just going to be knock-offs of secular sounds that I could get in droves and in better quality elsewhere. Furthermore, it kind of struck me as odd that the older folks in the parish assumed I didn’t have the capacity for more mature music or that I couldn’t appreciate beauty if it was presented to me. You see, I had started listening to the classical music station on the radio, even setting my radio/alarm clock to turn on with that music playing. The beauty and the order of this classical genre stirred something in me that pop music never did. Sure, I loved the emotion and movement of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys just like everyone else. My favorite band was actually Dave Matthew’s Band – I enjoyed the deeper thoughts and the jazz fusion sounds, but I have to be honest, I had more earworms from Beethoven than from the Beatles. There was something in what is termed “Classical” music that spoke to me of that which is deeper and more satisfying than the saccharine lyrics and rhythms of pop songs or even the existential poetry and moods of alternative rock. It had emotion, but it seemed to transcend emotion and get at something more solid: beauty, truth and goodness. I remember getting a CD of Chanticleer and being intrigued by the mellifluous sounds they were making with their voices. I was drawn by the notion that most of these tunes had ancient origins and were getting at that same truth, beauty and goodness. My dad bought me a CD of the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos and I was mesmerized by it. Rather than put me to sleep, like most people mockingly said it would do to you, it put me on a higher plane – my first real experience of the transcendence of chant. What is really mind-boggling to me is that I never really 3 associated that with what we did every Sunday. I hadn’t made a conscious connection between that search for truth beauty and goodness and the mysteries that I had served for years as an Altar Server and the music that was normally sung in those days. The way I had been formed was to associate Sunday with sappy music that honestly left you feeling good and upbeat most of the time; “Jesus Loves Me, so let us rejoice”, but it didn’t go much deeper than that. (a tangent – it is so often erroneous assumed that music at Church has to be upbeat. That is why most people don’t get chant at first – it is a bit moody, that is, in the modes are expressed the whole experience of humanity and takes each one seriously). What we were singing was religious music for sure and some was even pretty good and at times well performed, but it wasn't what the Church would describe as Sacred Music – that is, set aside specifically for Divine Worship. I probably could have guessed that the chant I was encountering was ‘our music’ as Catholics, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that it could be used at Mass – after all, that was ancient stuff – didn’t Vatican II forbid all that and say that we should sing “Gather us in” instead?

My first experience of music planning was this practice of "sitting with the readings" and then trying to find that would "reflect the theme". We were tasked with creating the infamous four- sandwich. This meant looking through hymnals trying to find the right sentiment and tone – making all sorts of decisions based on feelings and emotions. Many times in our youth masses it was not unheard of to simply play the Christian Religious Music that was popular on the radio. We had no understanding of a distinction between religious music and sacred liturgical music. This happened in Youth groups, youth masses, at the “regular” Sunday Mass and even into the seminary in my earlier days. During my early days of seminary, however, it was becoming apparent that not all hymns were 4 created equally. The older ones had some depth to them, the newer ones didn’t always have that same gravitas. Some used scripture, some paraphrased scripture, some even parodied scripture. Oh, how we made fun of some of those for their silly out-of-date sentiments and comical tunes. I don’t ever remember singing “Lord of the Dance” with a straight face (perhaps it was hard to with a devil on my back). Many of them were influenced by non-Catholic theology, many were simply shallow and trite. Some were even outright heretical – as if we were to “build the city of God” by ourselves without God’s help or simply just “sing a new church into being”, because we didn’t like the one we had. The tunes were a mixed bag. Sure there were some that stuck in your head and there were even some that made you snap your fingers (we could have a whole tangent on rhythm based music as unsuited for the Divine Mysteries – I remember being quite caught off guard and a little put out that “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness” [Father of all wisdom, come to him and bless his name]. was just a riff from Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”). The music was oftentimes tortured and contorted; searching for novelty and a chance to copyright a new sound. Ok. But is sacred music supposed to be the product of my musings and the limiting options of a genre of music not particularly suited for the sacred mysteries? Is that the extent of musical selection? That is what I thought and it was all I knew growing up.

But then I was in Theology School and I started reading what the Church had to say. This is where I felt like King Josiah being brought the book of the law of the Lord. Here for the first time I saw what Mother Church was asking of us as musicians. I discovered at the front of the old sacramentary that there was a whole document which detailed how Mass was supposed to be celebrated. In the GIRM I heard words like ordinary, proper antiphons and graduals from a book called the Graduale Romanum. I realized the Church, in her official playbook, was pointing 5 me to resources I had never laid eyes upon, nor even heard of, nobody had even thought to tell me about them when we were ‘planning the music for mass’.

I found the Graduale Romanum, then the Liber Cantualis, which was all well and good. I thought, “these are some nice old books that my ancestors used to use.” But then I noticed the copyright in the front of the Graduale was 1974, and 1978 for the Liber Cantualis. “Hmm”, I thought, “very curious”. Then I found the Graduale Simplex (that was the one that did it for me). With the Simplex, I read the introduction and realized that this book was a direct product of the Second Vatican Council - a council that I had, with so many others, erroneously assumed had done away with all this “chanting” and “propers” and “ordinaries.” It was like scales came off my eyes and I finally saw that the Church had a wealth of sacred music to offer that had been tried in the crucible of tradition and orthodoxy. These things had been composed over centuries and were a true part of the Lex Orandi of the Church. They were meant to still be sung by the Church today. They were not relics of the past, but the actual mind and instruction of the Novus Ordo Mass as envisioned by the Second Vatican Council.

Then I started getting curious. What did the Church really say about music? I thought that I could trust what was happening in parishes and even the seminary. But I was starting to look behind the curtain and was seeing something different. I thought, “well all of these things I grew up with were part of Vatican II right?” So I read Sacrosanctum Concilium the Conciliar document on the reform of the liturgy. Imagine my surprise when I saw things like:

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116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

117. The typical edition of the books of Gregorian chant is to be completed; and a more critical edition is to be prepared of those books already published since the restoration by St. Pius X. It is desirable also that an edition be prepared containing simpler melodies, for use in small churches.

This opened my eyes to a world that I am still uncovering in its richness. Again I felt like King Josiah, and rejoiced that everything was laid out so clearly.

If you just take the time to look at the official books laid down by the Church for Sacred Worship you will find that the rubrics are chock full of musical indicators and directions. The music they suggest and even sometimes print directly into the books have great theological content, and they especially contained something that the Church had asked for in the Council – an increased appreciation for the scriptures. It was interesting for me to note that there was a huge amount of scripture suggested in the propers and sung texts of the Mass that was just being forgotten and overlooked by ‘liturgy planning teams’.

What I discovered was that the missal and the official books are full of ready-made and chosen material. In other words, I didn’t need to sit around with the readings in a committee to discuss our feelings about them so that we can select the one that ‘speaks to us’, chosen most of the time simply because a word or two matched a line in one of the readings.

But it really didn't all come full circle till I learned the Ancient Form of the Roman Rite. If scales had come off of my blinded eyes before, now it was like I had 7 gotten an eye transplant. Finally I had the framework to understand the reform. I realized I had been reading these documents in a vacuum without a proper context. How could I understand or appreciate a reform if I had never seen first hand what was in need of such reforms? The moment you are able to experience a Sung Mass in the Ancient Form and do it with even just a little bit of understanding, you can’t help but be blown away by the richness of faith that is laid out before you.

You see I had been raised on “Eagles Wings” and “Gather Us In”. I thought that was all that the Church had to offer. As a child I sang along as this was very much child-like music - simple ditties without much theological content. But in the encounter with the Ancient Form, I had discovered a richness of faith and expression which matched the depth of what I was learning in seminary, the depth of a mature faith that was more than “Jesus Loves Me”. In this form and it’s music there was the incarnation of a profound adult faith that taught concrete truths, wasn’t afraid of dogmatic definitions, boldly proclaimed Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead! As if the liturgy itself was reflecting the deep richness my textbooks proclaimed that we believed. I thought to myself, “surely this is what is meant to be expressed even in the Novus Ordo of the Mass?” I firmly believe this to be the case. This conference and many like it are about proclaiming this good news from the rooftops.

But the revelations about the treasures of the Church’s Sacred Music doesn’t just stop at the Mass. It just keeps getting deeper and deeper. I had always hated, “Morning Has Broken” especially after hearing Cat Stevens singing it on the radio. I couldn’t help but laugh at it every time I heard it. But yet it kept coming up again and again in the breviary. 8

It didn’t even dawn on me that this same paradigm was at work even in the Liturgy of the Hours until someone handed me the Liber Hymnarius. Wow! So the Church did have hymns and most of them were written to be sung in the Liturgy of the Hours. People like , Hillary of Poitiers and Thomas Aquinas wrote gorgeous, theologically profound Catholic Hymns – why weren’t we singing them in the Catholic Church instead of ones written by non-catholics like Martin Luther, the Methodist Charles Wesley, and the Marty Haugen who attends the United Church of Christ? Looking through the Liber Hymnarius for the first time I heard the Ambrosian Hymn , [caelum resultat laudibus, mundus exultans iubilat, gemens infernus ululuat] and I almost cried for joy. “The morn had spread her crimson rays, when rang the skies with shouts of praise; Earth joined the joyful hymn to swell, that brought despair to vanquished hell.” This was far superior to "Morning has broken". There was a beauty and harmony of both text and tune, of content and style. These were the songs that were to be sung in the new edition of the breviary that came out after the 2nd Vatican Council. This resource made me wonder, “what happened 40 years ago that caused me never to hear the sublime wisdom, beauty and truth of these often-times ancients hymns?”

Another thing that peeked my interest was when I was caught off guard by the triple kyrie printed in an earlier edition of the Graduale Romanum. I wondered why that extra one was there. Someone told me that there had always been a series of three kyrie’s. It was the Council that had reduced the number because it was a useless repetition:

SC 34. “The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, and unencumbered by useless repetitions;”

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But what was ironic about all of this is that most contemporary compositions have conveniently forgotten what the Council actually called for and you find things like a Gloria with refrains or worse, 16 repetitions of the Hosanna in the Highest in the Sanctus of the contemporary Missa Luna.

These same revelations kept coming when I studied the beauties of Holy Week, for instance. Crux fidelis is yet another example of sublime and profound theology mixed with excruciating beauty of form that I would dare say is unparalleled in any contemporary music. Singing to the wood of the cross on Good Friday the Church even prints in the :

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una Faithful Cross the Saints rely on, nobilis, nulla talem silva profert, Nobel tree beyond compare! Never fronde, flore, germine. Dulce was there such a scion, never leaf or lignum, dulci clavo, dulce pondus flower so rare. Sweet the timber, sustinens. sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear!

Why had I never heard this before? What sublime reflection and perfect composure for approaching the wood of the cross? At first I felt betrayed by all this - why had they kept this such a big secret? Why did they hide this from me? Then when I expressed my amazement at the riches I was finding in these books and rubrics I encountered people who were viscerally angry! Angry that I had found joy in our own tradition. Angry that I was ‘undoing Vatican II’; angry that I wasn’t buying what they had spent so much time and effort building. Didn’t I know how bad the old days were? “No, I don’t. I’m only 35 – Marty Haugen and Dan Schutte are the ‘bad old days’ for me! Now I get to sing awesome things like composed in the 4th century and Kyrie’s that are 10 even more ancient. I get to Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium, and Adoro te devote, latens Deitas” It still boggles my mind that this was not taught to us as some of the greatest things we would every be able to utter on our lips! And yet here we are. With my own two eyes I have read what the Church asks of us and it is nothing short of truth, beauty and goodness. How could the Church ask for less? What so many had relegated to the waste bin, I have come to see as some of the greatest treasures the world knows. In fact, I am not alone in this opinion, shall we have yet one more quote from the Second Vatican Council,

SC 112 “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art.”

A treasure that has been deprived to so many generations but is now being opened and shared. So now that we have shared a few laughs and tears, groans and sighs, and reminisced about this rediscovery, the question now upon us is, “What do we do about it?”

One thing that I've learned very clearly is that the priest makes all the difference. I was in the seminary. Then I was an associate pastor, not the pastor. Now that I am a pastor I see how much of a difference I can make in the direction of the music program. Pray for priests. Most priests are still suffering from that blindness that I experienced and in good faith think that singing “One Bread One Body” is what the Church expects of them. Priests are human just like the rest of us – change is difficult and admitting that all your assumptions about a particular subject are all wrong is hard to do. Many priests think that all this talk of ‘Sacred Music’ is even somehow a betrayal of the 2nd Vatican Council. I believe I have already quoted a sufficient amount from Conciliar and post- conciliar documents already to debunk this myth. And yet it remains, and is, one of the main reasons there is so much resistance. But the tide is turning in many places and the 11 Church’s vision for Sacred Music as proposed by the 2nd Vatican Council is finally starting to take root in many places. Your presence here confirms this reality.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2013 I was appointed to the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, TN, by a bishop who told me that I was to make the Basilica, “Sound like a Basilica”. I have been working to implement the Church’s vision of Sacred Music there ever since and I believe we have made great progress and have had great success. Now the way forward has been fraught with it’s own difficulties. I’ve had to learn a few lessons along the way. Not everyone has the same vision and not everyone is comfortable with change.

There is fall-out from any change. Look at how many people fell away from the Church after the Liturgical Changes of the 60’s and 70’s. Remember the example of Jesus in John 6 – some walked away. But remember also that there are plenty of places where the status quo is offered – we shouldn’t be afraid of doing great things just because everyone else has settled for something else. Parishes have to offer the tradition of the Church else it will never be known. But for those who want the status quo, this can be difficult. In some places you may run into the situation that you are the only place around and that makes the going a little harder, but in Chattanooga for instance, there are six other parishes in the greater metropolitan area that offer basically the status quo of contemporary Americana church music. If the Sacred Music of the Church chafes at you, there are plenty of options. At the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul we have chosen to be the parish that offers the Joy of Sacred Music. Now, this has ramifications. If you choose to take up the noble cause of Sacred Music in your parish don’t be surprised if people call you an overachiever for actually quoting official documents of the Church and doing all this ‘fancy pants’ traditional stuff. People are very often comfortable with mediocrity and uncomfortable with challenges to this mediocrity.

12 Not everyone will come along. A wise priest once told me, “ Listen, a third of the people will love everything you do, a third will hate everything you do and a third will not care one way or another, so just do what is right and good and you will be okay!”

Here are some musings that I would like to share with you about how to implement the Church’s own Sacred Music in your parish.

Pray. If it is God’s Will, it will happen. Pray especially before the Blessed Sacrament. Get a convent of sisters praying for your intention. Get a group of like-minded individuals to commit to a holy hour or a rosary for the cause of Sacred Music.

Start, even if you don’t have everything in place! “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” – G.K. Chesterton. Many good initiatives never get off the ground because every little thing is not in place or there is a lack of confidence or the singers are not ideal or Father’s voice is a bit froggy or the organist is threatening to mutiny or the people complain that something changed.

Go slowly! Inch towards the ideal. We are 50 years into a disaster – there might not be a way to implement things in the ideal way that was envisaged in Musicam Sacram, 1967. However, the ideals of Musicam Sacram should influence our meager steps towards the higher goal.

Be patient. There is a whole generation of priests being taught these things in the seminary. In fact, when my newly ordained parochial vicar came to say his first mass at the Basilica he chanted everything, from the ‘In the name of the Father’, till the dismissal, all in the solemn tone – and all that at our Saturday evening anticipated Mass! We all got a chuckle out of it, but he did it because he was trained to chant in the seminary! Imagine that 20 years ago! 13

If you run into a priest who is uncooperative – take the approach of the independent schola. That is the origin of the Benedict XVI schola in Knoxville. My dad sings with them. Here you have a convert to Catholicism from the Baptist tradition learning Latin and singing Gregorian Chant and loves every second of it! Just get together and start learning and singing. Make the offer to sing one motet or another. Sing vespers if not allowed at Mass. Offer to sing preludes to Mass, Stations, other devotions, sing at parish social events, offer a concert. None of these offerings take away from the existing music program; they only serve to acquaint the parish (and pastor) with the music that the Church offers us, and probably win some converts. Keep moving forward a little at a time.

Don't forget the children! Just as it is our younger generation seminarians and priests who are leading the New Liturgical Movement, our children are sponges and eager to soak up all the treasures you and I have discovered. Yet they are innocent of preconceived notions or biases. They are not afraid of Latin or chant. And the secret is when they start learning these things, their parents hear it and follow. The enthusiasm spreads within the parish and even outside parish boundaries, and eventually you may have a large contingent of parishioners who actually want to implement what the Church teaches. This contingent can go far in helping a lukewarm or cautious pastor feel supported in moving forward with the program. The youth schola is a great outlet to which you can direct God-given energy and enthusiasm for sacred music when opportunity does not exist in the regular Sunday Masses.

Catechize! Make sure to explain what you are doing! Bring the people along. When your only experience of food is a cafeteria or at worst, MacDonald’s, you can’t expect people to appreciate foie gras or Moroccan Tagine, can you? But, let me assure you, both are exquisite. The same is true for people who are raised on Dan Schutte and 14 Marty Haugen, you can’t expect them to immediately fall in love with Tallis, Victoria and Palestrina much less a straight up Gradual or Introit in melismatic chant. Ease them into the palate and explain things the whole way through.

Propers Promote the use of the propers – For one, explain that it is directly what VII asked us to do vis-à-vis more scripture in mass. The second Vatican Council called for a more profound and active love of the scriptures. The new lectionary, the call for new translations, why not sing the scriptures at Mass that make up the bulk of the propers? Secondly, using the propers alleviates the need to ‘choose music’ for all the parts of the Mass as the Church in Her wisdom has already given us the music! You can suggest a diet - cutting out half of the four-hymn sandwich. This is most clearly seen in the funeral liturgy. Try to convince the priest to offer the Church’s own texts as the introit antiphon and offertory at a funeral mass – after all, its one less thing that a grieving family has to worry about and the texts are beautiful and very prayerful and especially suited to the actually theology and expression of the funeral liturgy.

In the parish setting, start small, say, with the communion antiphon. It is short and shouldn’t disrupt anyone’s liturgy plan. Do it in the vernacular in case someone is offended by Latin. Offer it along with a hymn – nothing is being taken away, only something good is being added. Then you can gradually introduce the Introit. But do the same thing, have a prelude hymn before the chant so you can show we are not taking something away, but just adding to it. Sing it in the vernacular – lots of resources out there from CMAA and Corpus Christi Watershed among others.

15 We are currently trying to utilize choral versions in the vernacular of the Introit and most everyone, not only like it, but say how incredibly beautiful it is.

Ordinaries – start with a seasonal approach, like or . The time limit makes it seem less threatening. Just start with the Missal Chants in English, (that should be an easy sell by saying, “shouldn’t we at least be able to sing what is printed in the missal?” Then move to Mass XVIII in Latin, quoting SC 54

“steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.”

Then try a fuller ordinary, like Missa de Angelis, for or another big feast. Many of the older crowd will remember this setting and you can help them remember what it was like to sing this beautiful music.

Latin – perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to most people in the pews. Always provide translations. Print the text with the translation in the bulletin, announce the translation before the chant begins, refer people to pew missals with side-by-side translations if possible. If you can convince people that there is something good being sung and that they can understand what is being sung, they are more prone to welcome it. Offer Latin classes – we just had a successful series of Latin classes at the Basilica with an introductory Latin class, a more advanced class and even a class for children!

Chant – start with simple tones. Lalemant introits from Corpus Christi Watershed. Chabanel psalms are a good bridge for responsorial psalms. Use simpler melodies at first – even just learning a Psalm tone or two which you can easily fit text into. That is great for the responsorial psalm which too often is turned into a showy thing. Then build your way up to singing some of the simpler or more common songs found in the Liber Cantualis such as the Adoro Te Devote or the Ubi Caritas. You will find that people 16 will readily respond to Chant’s non-metrical rhythm and most will instinctually grasp modal tones. Offer chant classes to teach how to read square notes – teach them that neumes are their friends, not their enemies! Knowledge overcomes fear!

Musicam Sacram suggests: 18. Among the faithful, special attention must be given to the instruction in sacred singing of members of lay religious societies, so that they may support and promote the participation of the people more effectively. The formation of the whole people in singing, should be seriously and patiently undertaken together with liturgical instruction, according to the age, status and way of life of the faithful and the degree of their religious culture; this should be done even from the first years of education in elementary schools.

Active Participation - Another problem arises with the false notion of participatio actuosa in that so many music programs insist that everybody has to sing everything. That's just not right. It does not take into account the whole of the experience of sacred liturgy. There is a place for silence. There is also a place for active listening. One participates in a play by watching attentively, so much so that sometimes we forget we are onlookers and the story engages us deeply, even though we aren’t the actors. Something akin to that, but at a more profound level takes place in the sacred mysteries. There is a part to be played by a skilled set of musicians. And this skill of musicians does not take away from the people's actual participation at mass. We could perhaps have a whole other talk on the proper understanding of this topic but I would suggest reading what the Church actually says on this matter, rather than relying on what people assume it means.

Lack of musical education – most parishioners at best know a few chords on a guitar. Find a music teacher who would be willing to offer a sight-reading class, send people from your parish to a CMAA colloquium. Ask the local Catholic School if you could teach the children chant as an extra-curricular activity. 17

Lack of motivation The canard – Many say, “Chant and polyphony are too hard!” But so is “On Eagles Wings” if it was the first time you heard it. The fact is, what usually is meant is that songs that are unknown are hard to learn as opposed to songs that are familiar. We have a tough job ahead of us because we have lost whole generations. But all is not lost. It is not too late. The fact is that Catholic children before the 60’s had learned the Sacred Repertoire at an early age and most of the older people in your parish could probably still hum the tune for the Tantum Ergo if you started singing it. The next generation will be able to do the same. If you want a good example of children learning Latin and chant, Google ‘Sugarland Catholic’ and ‘chant’ to find an awesome YouTube video. The children are the future.

Compensation of Musicians Also we need to talk about our monetary compensation of musicians. This music that we talking about is technical and is sometimes difficult. Do we put our money where our mouth is or where the church wants us to go? In my parish we just had to wrestle with fitting the cost of sacred music into our budget. It feels strange to pay people for sacred music, but a worker is worth his weight. Ask yourself, “Should priests get paid, should the janitors get paid, should the secretaries get paid?” Why in many parishes aren’t the organist and cantors and choir members paid? It is assumed that they would just volunteer their time. And yet they often spend countless hours preparing and rehearsing to make the music beautiful. Many even come with professional degrees that have enhanced their skills in this area. Many gladly donate this out of the goodness of their hearts and a love for what they do, but if we expect sacred music to grow we have to put our money where our mouth is. The reality is that it may require re-aligning budget priorities, sacrificing some items in favor of the liturgy, and calling for support from parishioners. 18

But the bright side is that the cost of music can be kept very low (due to public domain repertory, generous composers writing for the Church pro bono). Up-front investment in good Missals and hymnals will take you far.

In Summary, Our Mother, the Church, has given us a great and noble heritage of Sacred Music. She has given us ample instruction about how to use this heritage in the fruitful celebration of the sacred liturgy. The Novus Ordo was not meant to be a wholehearted rejection of all that was handed down to us as good and beautiful. I truly believe that the Ordinary Form can be celebrated with as much reverence and beauty as the more ancient form and can bear great fruit. Sacred Music has a huge part to play in this. I believe that given time and a little effort on our part, many will come to appreciate the beauty, truth and goodness of what the Church continues to offer her children through her Sacred Music. My generation has discovered this richness and we are rejoicing that it has not been lost. They are hungry for it and desire it. Just one week ago I married a young, faithful and joy filled couple who asked for a sung Novus Ordo Mass in English celebrated Ad Orientem, with the propers and ordinary sung in Latin and as much incense as could be spared! I happily obliged! I pray that future generations can know this same joy also and share it with those who come after them. We are seeing a rebirth. Many have now read the book and with joy are committed to observe the commandments, statutes and decrees with whole hearts and souls just like the people of Israel in King Josiah’s day. I for one, am very glad to be a part of it.

May Jesus Christ be praised! Now and Forever! Mary Mother of God, pray for us. St. Cecilia, pray for us.